No Tennessee lead this season is safe against Kentucky.
Three weeks after the Volunteers couldn’t hold a 17-point advantage in a two-point loss to the Wildcats in Knoxville, they watched a 14-point halftime lead evaporate Saturday night during a 74-71 setback inside Rupp Arena. Collin Chandler’s 3-pointer with 33 seconds remaining put Kentucky ahead to stay at 71-69, and an offensive rebound by Mouhamed Dioubate resulted in two Denzel Aberdeen free throws with 3.7 seconds left that accounted for the final score in Lexington.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s half-court attempt as time expired hit off the rim.
“That’s the great thing about this group. We know we can fight through anything,” Kentucky senior guard Otega Oweh said on ESPN after his 21-point performance. “We got down in the last game and in this game. We’ve been down a lot this season, but we never panic.”
Kentucky improved to 17-7 overall and to 8-3 in Southeastern Conference play with the season sweep of the No. 25 Vols, who dropped to 16-7 and 6-4.
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“We didn’t finish it all the way,” Tennessee 11th-year coach Rick Barnes said on the Vol Network. “I thought coming down the stretch that we were not as physical as we needed to be offensively. Obviously they were putting their head down and really trying to drive it at us, and we settled, but with that said, you can’t miss as many shots around the rim as we did.
“Honestly, we need more from everybody, but missing those shots continues to put so much pressure on the perimeter guys. Overall, it’s a disappointing loss.”
Saturday’s outcome spoiled Nate Ament matching his season high with a 29-point performance that contained a 4-of-6 clip from 3-point range and 5-of-6 accuracy at the free-throw line. Gillespie added 15 points, while J.P. Estrella scored 11 and Bishop Boswell had 10.
Consecutive layups by Oweh gave Kentucky a 61-60 lead with 6:18 remaining, but Boswell’s jumper and a second-chance basket and free throw by Ament put the Vols back up 65-61. Ultimately, however, Tennessee could not stop Kentucky’s final surge despite outrebounding the Wildcats 46-31.
“I missed a lot of bunnies, and J.P. missed a lot of bunnies,” Vols freshman forward DeWayne Brown II said. “We didn’t get the stops we needed to get in the second half. We kind of let our foot off the gas offensively, too, because we stopped running. We just stopped doing the things we were doing in the first half.
“I missed so many layups tonight. I can’t miss that many layups.”
The Vols took a 47-33 lead into halftime on a pair of Boswell free throws with one second remaining.
Ament had 19 points in the first half, while Gillespie added 14. Combining Saturday’s first half with the second half of Tuesday night’s 84-66 win over visiting Ole Miss, Ament tallied 45 points on 15-of-21 shooting, including 6-of-8 from behind the arc.
(READ MORE: Vols blow 17-point lead in loss to Wildcats: ‘It sucks to let the fans down’)
The Wildcats, in a repeat of their 80-78 triumph inside the Food City Center, started chipping away at their deficit in the second half as the Vols missed 13 of their first 15 shots. Dioubate’s dunk, Jasper Johnson’s two free throws and Oweh’s dunk trimmed a 57-49 hole to 57-55, forcing Barnes to call a timeout with 9:25 to play.
Tennessee was 6-of-30 shooting in the second half and missed all six 3-point attempts. Gillespie scored just one point after halftime.
“Ja’Kobi has got to be a better second-half player,” Barnes said. “He’s got to do that. He’s being guarded in ways he’s never been guarded.
“We came in here and proved that we were ready for the moment. We’ve just got to win the game.”
Tennessee will remain on the road Wednesday, when the Vols face Mississippi State (11-12, 3-7) at 9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.